Nonstop flight route between Santa Maria, Portugal and San Diego, California, United States:
Departure Airport:

Arrival Airport:

Distance from SMA to SDM:
Share this route:
Jump to:
- About this route
- SMA Airport Information
- SDM Airport Information
- Facts about SMA
- Facts about SDM
- Map of Nearest Airports to SMA
- List of Nearest Airports to SMA
- Map of Furthest Airports from SMA
- List of Furthest Airports from SMA
- Map of Nearest Airports to SDM
- List of Nearest Airports to SDM
- Map of Furthest Airports from SDM
- List of Furthest Airports from SDM
About this route:
A direct, nonstop flight between Santa Maria Airport (SMA), Santa Maria, Portugal and Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM), San Diego, California, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,002 miles (or 8,049 kilometers).
A Great Circle is the shortest distance between 2 points on a sphere. Because most world maps are flat (but the Earth is round), the route of the shortest distance between 2 points on the Earth will often appear curved when viewed on a flat map, especially for long distances. If you were to simply draw a straight line on a flat map and measure a very long distance, it would likely be much further than if you were to lay a string between those two points on a globe. Because of the large distance between Santa Maria Airport and Brown Field Municipal Airport, the route shown on this map most likely appears curved because of this reason.
Try it at home! Get a globe and tightly lay a string between Santa Maria Airport and Brown Field Municipal Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!
Departure Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | SMA / LPAZ |
Airport Names: |
|
Location: | Santa Maria, Portugal |
GPS Coordinates: | 36°58'26"N by 25°10'15"W |
Area Served: | Vila do Porto |
Operator/Owner: | Government of Portugal |
Airport Type: | Public |
Elevation: | 308 feet (94 meters) |
# of Runways: | 1 |
View all routes: | Routes from SMA |
More Information: | SMA Maps & Info |
Arrival Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | SDM / KSDM |
Airport Name: | Brown Field Municipal Airport |
Location: | San Diego, California, United States |
GPS Coordinates: | 32°34'19"N by 116°58'49"W |
Area Served: | San Diego, California |
Operator/Owner: | City of San Diego |
Airport Type: | Public |
Elevation: | 526 feet (160 meters) |
# of Runways: | 2 |
View all routes: | Routes from SDM |
More Information: | SDM Maps & Info |
Facts about Santa Maria Airport (SMA):
- Santa Maria Airport handled 93,436 passengers last year.
- Santa Maria Airport is an airport located 5 km west northwest of the urbanized area of Vila do Porto on the Portuguese island of Santa Maria, in the autonomous region of the Azores.
- In addition to being known as "Santa Maria Airport", another name for SMA is "Aeroporto de Santa Maria".
- The closest airport to Santa Maria Airport (SMA) is João Paulo II Airport (PDL), which is located 60 miles (97 kilometers) NNW of SMA.
- Because of Santa Maria Airport's relatively low elevation of 308 feet, planes can take off or land at Santa Maria Airport at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.
- Along with the airports in Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Flores, Horta, Ponta Delgada and Beja, the airport's concessions to provide support to civil aviation was conceded to ANA Aeroportos de Portugal on 18 December 1998, under provisions of decree 404/98.
- Transportes Aéreos Portugueses began lay-over flights to this airport on 7 December 1962, eventually inaugurating trans-Atlantic service between Santa Maria-New York and Santa Maria-Montreal.
- Santa Maria Airport (SMA) currently has only 1 runway.
- The furthest airport from Santa Maria Airport (SMA) is Moruya Airport (MYA), which is nearly antipodal to Santa Maria Airport (meaning Santa Maria Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Moruya Airport), and is located 12,166 miles (19,579 kilometers) away in Moruya, New South Wales, Australia.
Facts about Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM):
- Because of Brown Field Municipal Airport's relatively low elevation of 526 feet, planes can take off or land at Brown Field Municipal Airport at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.
- Brown Field Municipal Airport is in the Otay Mesa neighborhood of San Diego, California, 13 miles southeast of Downtown San Diego and named in honor of Commander Melville S.
- Tijuana Airport, an airline airport, is just over 1 nmi to the south across the Mexico-United States border, with a similar length and a slightly different runway orientation.
- The furthest airport from Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,551 miles (18,590 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
- Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM) has 2 runways.
- The closest airport to Brown Field Municipal Airport (SDM) is Tijuana International Airport (TIJ), which is located only 2 miles (4 kilometers) SSE of SDM.
- Brown Field is 1.5 miles north of the US/Mexico border in the Otay Mesa Community of the City of San Diego.